Bowling Green State University’s Office of Campus Sustainability has used a $50,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Education Fund (OEEF) to purchase bicycle shelters featuring LiveRoof brand living roofs. These shelters add more green space to the increasingly sustainable campus, where the Carillion Dining Center was also topped with a sustainable living roof earlier this summer.

Two bicycle shelters, located outside the Student Recreation Center and the Wolfe Center for the Arts, each provide 18-20 covered locations for students and staff to park bikes. The BGSU bicycle shelter roofs feature sedums and other succulent plants that help address two of the EPA’s priorities: managing stormwater runoff and reducing emissions.

Green roofs provide natural function and beauty while offering aesthetic, environmental and social benefits. The benefits of vegetative roofs include the reduction of urban heat islands, extend the life of the roof and provide a habitat for pollinating insects. Financial benefits can also be achieved from a vegetative roof including: extension of roof life, energy conservation, enhanced public relations, and conservation of municipal septic systems.

“We have several green roof projects on campus. I found that students, as well as the rest of the university community, were interested in the green roof process and the many benefits that come with such a roof,” said Dr. Nicholas Hennessy, Sustainability Coordinator. “I also have a strong interest in the educational opportunities provided by such installations. We have been able to use our projects as educational ‘labs’ for some of the environmental studies classes as well, so there is a lot of learning going on.”

Bowling Green students voluntarily pool funds into the “Student Green Initiatives Fund” to support campus-wide sustainability projects such as the bike racks and dining hall projects. The University’s Student Green Initiatives Fund provided the percentage of matching dollars required by the OEEF grant. BGSU and The Ohio State University were the only university recipients of grants for the structures.

The OEEF was created by the General Assembly in 1990 to enhance Ohio citizens’ awareness and understanding of environmental issues. It is administered by the Director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) and provides approximately $1 million annually in grants to support environmental education efforts within the state of Ohio.

Darren Mayer of landscape architecture firm MKSK designed the bicycle racks for BGSU. Sustainable Green Solutions of West Chester, Ohio provided green roof technical and logistical support to the design and construction team.

“It’s a privilege for to work with BGSU’s Campus Sustainability office and support their goals for creating a sustainable, environmentally-responsive campus community,” said Dan Cartell, principal, Sustainable Green Solutions, Inc. “The students take an active role by creating sustainable strategies, raising funds and managing their lifestyle choices. It’s exciting to me to see this movement growing on such a large scale.”

A team of volunteers recently installed a green roof on the Moorestown Municipal Building in Moorestown, New Jersey. The green roof is part of the city’s Sustainable Moorestown initiative which aims to promote social equity, economic vitality, and environmental quality. The team used a water resource grant from Rutgers University to fund the project. The grant funds projects that will help manage stormwater runoff.

This project was selected because the soil and plants of the vegetated roof act as a sponge to hold stormwater during rain events. The green roof also filters pollutants that would otherwise be flushed into the Moorestown waterways. In addition to the water management benefits, the green roof system will help to reduce cooling costs for the municipal building. To find out more about the project, read the article from the Burlington County Times.

Splatsin chooses LiveRoof® brand living roof for its new community centre to reflect a traditional winter shelter, provide stewardship for the earth.

ENDERBY, BC — Fulfilling a long-held dream of creating a new community centre, Splatsin carefully crafted a new three-story, 33,581 square-foot building to reflect its history and focus on the future by caring for the land. This summer, the building was topped off with a 24,200 square-foot lightweight-planted roof.

The new Splatsin Community Centre was designed to serve multiple functions. The centre provides space for meetings, banquets, weddings, reunions, and concerts. The facility will also have a high school regulation basketball court as well as running track on the mezzanine and will provide many opportunities for community members to access physical activities.

Education outreach is another key focus planned for the new site.

The unique dome-shaped green roof was designed to represent a traditional winter shelter used by Splatsin ancestors. The site design allows stormwater and below-grade drainage to be captured and used to irrigate the vegetated roof as well as ground-level native landscapes around the building and in the area to provide low maintenance and water conservation.

“Incorporating a living, green roof on the community centre was the best way to represent a traditional shelter,” according to Shawn Wiebe, Director of Housing, Infrastructure& Lands for the Splatsin Community. “The planted roof also provides sustainability and longevity for the centre, and provides us with an important water recovery and reuse feature.”

The vegetated roof was grown by NATS Nursery of Langley, BC using a unique evergreen sedum mix with native accent plants, including: Festuca saximontana, Bouteloua gracilis, and Festuca rubra. As the local LiveRoof licensed grower, green roof experts at NATS Nursery worked closely with the design team and Splatsin leadership to develop this plant palette that reflected the site’s unique design elements.

“Our nursery shares with the Splatsin community a love of the earth, as well as responsibility for its nurturing and care,” said Rod Nataros, Principal, NATS Nursery. “We were honoured to work with representatives of the Splatsin community to help create this beautiful community centre, helping them establish new roots sprouted from their history and tradition.”

Green roofs provide nature function and beauty. A patented, subterranean modular system unites the soil and plants creating a naturally beautiful meadow-like aesthetic. The roofs provide aesthetic, environmental and social benefits . Financial benefits can also be achieved from a vegetative roof including: extension of roof life, energy conservation, enhanced public relations, and conservation of municipal septic systems.

About Splatsin First Nation

The Splatsin are the most southern tribe of the Shuswap Nation, the largest Interior Salish speaking First Nation in Canada whose aboriginal territory stretches from the BC/Alberta border near the Yellowhead Pass to the plateau west of the Fraser River, southeast to the Arrow Lakes and to the upper reaches of the Columbia River. The Splatsin people reside on Indian reserve lands adjacent to the City of Enderby to the south and across the Shuswap River to the east. www.splatsin.ca

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